Cancer-causing virus associated with higher risk of new HIV infection

Apr 30, 2009

Infection with anal human papillomavirus (HPV), a virus that can cause anal and cervical cancers, is associated with a higher risk of new HIV infection in previously HIV-negative men who have sex with men (MSM), according to new UCSF research.

Reported online ahead of print in the journal AIDS, the findings are available now. They are scheduled for publication in an upcoming print issue.

In previous studies, other sexually transmitted infections have been associated with higher risk of HIV infection and HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection.

"We looked at HIV-negative men who have sex with men who were at high risk for HIV infection and who had multiple risk factors. Our results showed a strong independent association for increased risk of HIV acquisition among those men who were already infected with anal HPV," said the study's lead investigator, Peter V. Chin-Hong, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine and director of the program in transplant and immunocompromised host infectious diseases at UCSF.

The 1400 study participants were part of the EXPLORE trial, a large clinical trial to test the efficacy of a behavioral intervention for HIV-negative MSM with sites in Boston, Denver, New York and San Francisco. Risk factors were calculated from those men who became HIV-infected over the course of the trial and infections were identified by blood tests.

"We think that HPV enhances susceptibility to HIV infection through two mechanisms. Anatomically, the virus causes anal lesions. These lesions bring blood vessels closer to the surface and also the lesions' skin layer is thinner and more easily shredded, which frequently causes bleeding. These disruptions of the mucosal barrier could allow easier entry for HIV," said Chin-Hong.

In addition, HPV activates the immune system. The inflammatory cells recruited to the HPV lesions—dendritic cells, macrophages and CD4 T cells—are the immune cells most susceptible to HIV infection.

HPV vaccine has been found effective in preventing acquisition of the virus by women. Clinical trials testing the effectiveness of the vaccine among MSM are currently under way.

"To date, the focus of attention on HPV has been almost exclusively on its key role in causing squamous cell cancer. This study points to another important means by which HPV infection may be associated with morbidity and mortality, i.e., through potentiation of HIV infection. A direct role for HPV in this process will need to be confirmed in additional studies, and additional studies will be needed to understand the mechanisms by which HPV may do this, said the study's senior investigator and author, Joel Palefsky, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Anal Neoplasia Clinic at UCSF.

"But it is encouraging to note that to the degree that HPV truly plays a role in increasing the risk of acquiring HPV infection, primary prevention of HPV infection through HPV vaccination may potentially reduce that risk," he added.

Related Stories

The most common sexually transmitted virus in the US is genital human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, with 20 million Americans currently infected and another 6.2 million becoming infected each year. Although HPV causes serious ...

Two new studies suggest that male circumcision may assist in the prevention of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, particularly infection with the high-risk subtypes associated with cervical, penile, and other cancers. ...

A woman’s daily stress can reduce her ability to fight off a common sexually transmitted disease and increase her risk of developing the cancer it can cause, according to a new study. No such association is seen, however, ...

A call to explore a broader use of HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccines and the validation of a simple oral screening test for HPV-caused oral cancers are reported in two studies by a Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigator.

Recommended for you

Thirty years ago today, on March 2, 1985, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new HIV test. It was the result of nine months of round-the-clock labor by dozens of scientists. Immediately adopted by ...

How much money would be saved if one high-risk person was prevented from contracting HIV in the United States? A new study led by a researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College and published online Feb. 24 in Medical Care, answer ...

Once HIV-1 has hijacked a host cell to make copies of its own RNA genome and viral proteins, it must assemble these components into new virus particles. The orchestration of this intricate assembly process falls to a viral ...

New research from the Gladstone Institutes for the first time provides strong evidence that HIV latency is controlled not by infected host cells, but by the virus itself. This fundamentally changes how scientists ...

Postoperative mortality rates were low among patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), and those mortality rates were influenced as much by age and poor ...

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, scientists are looking for innovative ways to combat bacterial infections. The pathogen that causes conditions from strep throat to flesh-eating disease is among them, but scientists ...

User comments : 0

Please sign in to add a comment.
Registration is free, and takes less than a minute.
Read more

Click here to reset your password.
Sign in to get notified via email when new comments are made.

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript.
In order to enable it, please see these instructions.